One Roscommon couple lived the dream of rural revival when they bought a home with an original Victorian shopfront and ran an interiors business from there
Asking price: €595,000
Agent: DNG Ivan Connaughton (090) 666 3700
Over 100 local shops are closing annually in Ireland, according to the Convenience Stores and Newsagents Association (CSNA). But in a world where the fragile economic ecosystems of rural towns and villages were being hollowed out by the onslaught of modernity, Aidan and Patricia Donnelly defeated the trend.
Thirty years ago, they bought an abandoned shop premises in the rustic village of Athleague in Co Roscommon, restoring the property to its former glory and beyond. They established a successful business there, and even raised a family on the property.
The exterior of Main Street, Athleague, Co Roscommon
Theirs is a story that marks out another path for rural towns and villages, and one that might serve as inspiration for viewers of television programmes such as Country House Rescue or The Great House Revival, as presented by the late Hugh Wallace.
The property they acquired at auction in the early 1990s wasn’t an obvious choice. It had been neglected for some years and came with the full suite of problems, the kind that make even restoration hacks wince. Wood worm, dry rot, wet rot – the Donnellys got the lot. But they were up to the challenge, years before there were vacant and derelict grant schemes available to help with such projects.
The shop interior of Main Street, Athleague, Co Roscommon
“We both worked as engineers in the UK in the late ‘80s, early ‘90s,” Aidan explains. “My wife is a structural engineer, and I worked in computer aided design. We had a house in the UK which needed restoration, so we weren’t afraid of that sort of thing.” When Patricia got a job with Roscommon County Council, they returned to Ireland. “We were living with my wife’s parents at the time. This came on the market, and we bought it at auction. It had a substantial piece of ground with it and road frontage on the main street.”
The hallway of Main Street, Athleague, Co Roscommon
What they’d purchased was a building with a history. Since 1860, it had traded as a shop; a general merchant serving the local community. The original shop interior remained intact, a time capsule of retail Victoriana.
Getting from derelict to habitable took time. “We had to start with the roof and work our way down,” Aidan recalls. “It took us almost a year to do all that work, whilst trying to run a shop at the same time.” The heating needed upgrading and the electrical system required attention, all while they had a one-year-old baby.
The kitchen of Main Street, Athleague, Co Roscommon
The business itself grew out of a hobby. While lecturing in computer aided design at what was then the Regional Technical College in Athlone, Aidan had been restoring old pine furniture. It was the height of the stripped pine craze in the 1990s – waxed pine, farmhouse tables, old dressers. “I had time on my hands,” he says. “After a while, I said, ‘look, there might be a business in this’.”
The dining area of Main Street, Athleague, Co Roscommon
They started doing restoration work in the old stores and sheds out the back, converted some outbuildings into showrooms, and opened the shop to the side of the house. The business grew organically from there.
“Many people remember that we lived over the shop,” Aidan says. “When somebody would come in, we would come out of our kitchen and meet them. This was in the early ‘90s.”
Aidan and Patricia Donnelly in one of the living rooms at Main Street, Athleague, Co Roscommon. Photo: Gerard O’Loughlin
Patricia’s keen eye for interiors pushed the business in new directions. They began accessorising the furniture, adding Irish crafts and pottery such as Nicholas Mosse and Stephen Pearce. For a while, they manufactured farmhouse tables to size for customers, though as costs increased, they shifted to importing furniture and using ‘bought-in’ Irish-made pieces.
One of the living rooms at Main Street, Athleague, Co Roscommon
The business became something of a destination and the family grew alongside it. Three children were raised in the house amid a working retail premises. For 10 to 15 years, the Donnellys lived entirely in the property. When they extended the shop and began displaying furniture in the house itself, they moved to Patricia’s parents’ house, about five minutes away.
Now, the property presents an unusual opportunity. The Donnellys would be delighted if someone took on their furniture business as a going concern, but the property could equally suit someone looking for a substantial family home with character, or someone wanting to establish their own enterprise on the main street.
One of the bathrooms at Main Street, Athleague, Co Roscommon
The accommodation itself reflects the building’s dual nature across approximately 2,750 sq ft. On the ground floor, the entrance opens into a grand hallway with intricate Victorian detailing, leading to two spacious reception rooms with original fireplaces, high ceilings, and retrofitted double-glazed sliding sash windows, complete with original wooden shutters. Both rooms have underfloor heating and gas fireplaces. A bright kitchen and dining area opens through French doors onto a high-walled stone courtyard garden, while a large utility area offers potential as a home office or workspace.
One of the bedrooms at Main Street, Athleague, Co Roscommon
The original Victorian shop at the front – spanning approximately 500 sq ft – remains fully preserved with floor-to-ceiling shelving and drawers, the original timber counter, and a wood-burning stove. This shopfront is a winner of the Tidy Towns Regional Shopfront Award.
One of the bedrooms at Main Street, Athleague, Co Roscommon
Upstairs, the original Victorian staircase with its carved newel posts and Brazilian mahogany handrail leads to four bedrooms with original fireplaces, high ceilings, wide pitch-pine floors, and sash windows with original wooden shutters. A bathroom on the half landing has hand-painted stoneware tiles by the late Galway potter Judy Greene.
The garden and grain store building of Main Street, Athleague, Co Roscommon
The south-facing courtyard garden, enclosed by a 10-foot high curved stone wall, overlooks a two-storey cut-stone outbuilding of roughly 1,400 sq ft, a former grain store with an arched entrance. There is obvious potential here for conversion. Athleague is about 12 kilometres from Roscommon town.
The Donnellys appear to have demonstrated that rural revival isn’t just television fantasy. “If ever there was one that fits the description ‘living over the shop,’ this is the one,” Aidan says.
DNG Ivan Connaughton seeks €595,000.